The fate of the pikes, however, was of little conse-quence. Not in his wildest imaginings could he envisage disciplined, serried ranks of villagers marching resolutely up to the castle to face Nilsson’s men; that, indeed, was a task for others ‘better suited’.

Which still left Gryss with his original problem. What could he, and his potential co-conspirators, do?

He put the ring down gently but the bell tinkled faintly, invoking a cursory rumble from the dog somewhere in the cottage. Closing the door behind him, he set off towards the village. The darkness of every-thing that Rannick and Nilsson had brought to the valley was still with him, but for the first time in many weeks he felt almost at ease with himself. It was a feeling that grew as he visited first Yakob, then Jeorg – ‘Just to see how he’s getting on,’ he said, smiling excessively at Jeorg’s wife – and finally Harlen. He gave no indication of his intentions, simply asking them to come round to his cottage that evening, ‘Just to talk about a few things.’

The only threat to his unexpected euphoria was the absence of Marna. It took him some time to turn the conversation so that he could ask, casually, where she was. Harlen smiled and shrugged. Gryss had a brief vision of the young woman crawling along ditches and hedgerows in order to avoid the guards who were now permanently on duty down the valley. He dismissed it as calmly as he could. ‘Bring her with you, Harlen,’ he said as they parted. ‘There’re things I want to talk about that she’ll be interested in.’ Then he turned on his heel and left quickly before Harlen could summon up any questions.

Thus, in the early evening, all his would-be allies were gathered in his cottage.

He made no preamble, but set out his ideas immedi-ately. There was a silence when he had finished. Yakob eventually broke it. His initial reaction was the same as had been Gryss’s own. ‘All very fine, Gryss,’ he said. ‘We’d all like to do something. But what can we do? We can’t throw them out of the castle. We can’t get out of the valley.’ He threw up his hands. ‘We don’t even know what it is that Rannick and these people are up to.’